The Adventure of the Missing Starbase
by jsk
Summary: Captain Keel and crew stumble upon a mysterious vanishing starbase


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DISCLAIMER: "Star Trek" is the copyrighted by Paramount, and Paramount  
owns Star Trek and the Star Trek Universe. The following story is   
not-for-profit.  
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The Adventures of Jean-Luc Picard  
=================================  
  
The Adventure of the Missing Starbase  
-------------------------------------  
(c) Jasjit Singh, December 1998  
  
It was a routine survey mission. That is what is so peculiar about the  
whole story. And where Starbase 117 vanished to, we don't know, and may  
never know. But we are all still alive, or so it seems, and that fact,  
standing on its own, is a welcome relief.  
  
But I should begin at the beginning. As I mentioned, it was a routine  
survey mission. I was stationed aboard the U.S.S Stargazer, Federation  
registry NCC-2893, as the ship's Executive Officer. She was a fine  
vessel, built to withstand the hardships of war. She could take quite a  
beating and was definitely battle-worthy.  
  
We were well within the bounds of Federation space. Our mission consisted  
of a week of data gathering around an M-class planet that had been  
experiencing severe planetary weather disturbances - storms, hurricanes,  
earthquakes and the like. We were taking readings from sensor input both  
from the planets surface and the surrounding space. About the most  
exciting thing to do during that time, as Khalid, the Chief Engineer put  
it, was to read the output from the sensor logs. Khalid was a big, hulking  
figure of a man, with small eyes in an otherwise huge face. He was a  
genius, but he didn't let that fact be known ship-wide, for modesty  
perhaps, or other reasons that I could not fathom at the time.  
  
Our uneventful survey mission being over, we proceeded to Starbase 117,  
where we were scheduled to dock for a brief stay, and to report our  
findings to Fleet Admiral Luberto. I recall vividly the bewilderment  
aboard the bridge of the Stargazer as we approached the Starbase, only to  
find empty space instead of the Starbase. The captain, Walker Keel, looked  
at me with a frown and then said to helm:  
"Is our course correct?"  
"Aye sir, we are at the proper coordinates." responded Ensign Healey.  
"Forward viewscreen on," said Keel, getting up from his chair and taking a  
few steps forward. The viewscreen in front of us blurred and then an image  
of black space materialized on it, with brightly glittering stars in the  
distant space.  
  
We all looked at the screen, dumbfounded.  
"T'Pau, does the Starbase register on our sensors?" asked Keel.  
"No sir, sensors do not detect any vessel."  
"Any signs of debris?"  
"None, sir."  
"Any anomalous readings?"  
"Scanning . . . no anomalous readings, sir."  
  
Keel shot me a puzzled glance and then returned to his seat. He  
contemplated the empty space that loomed before us on the viewscreen. Then  
he said:  
"T'Pau, try hailing the Starbase using the standard Starfleet comm  
protocol. Use both secure and open channels."  
There was a brief pause as T'Pau attempted the hails. After a few seconds  
she looked up and said:  
"No response, sir"  
"Try a general hail, all channels, all frequencies."  
"Aye sir." - and then - "No response, sir."  
  
Keel scratched his head. The he said: "Contact Starfleet."  
  
When we had obtained contact with Starfleet we asked them if they knew  
anything about the mystery we were encountering.  
"What seems to be the problem, Walker?" It was Admiral Murray from  
Starfleet Command.  
"Well Admiral, Starbase 117 seems to be . . . well, missing."  
"Missing?"  
"Yes Admiral. It's just - gone."  
  
Starfleet had no idea what was going on. Their latest information (which  
was only minutes old), reported Starbase 117 functioning properly and very  
much in existence at our location.  
  
***  
  
Keel was on his feet, pacing slowly to and fro, hands clasped behind his  
back, chin sunk upon his breast. He seemed to be in thought. I was just  
about to consult Ops for the last transmission that had been received from  
the missing Starbase, when Keel stopped abruptly, looked up and said to me:  
  
"Jean-Luc, take an away team in a shuttle, get a closer look out there."  
"Aye sir," I said, rising. As I headed for the turbolift doors I selected  
my team: "Mr. Sainor."  
  
Do-reth Sainor was a thin wisp of a man, not very tall, and quite  
unassuming. His presence, though, was never missed, and he had a keen mind  
and an even keener perception. Since he seldom missed any fine point or  
detail, I decided that he would be invaluable to me. Being the Science  
Officer aboard the Stargazer, he would have to collect the data we gathered  
in any case. He left his station without a word and joined me in the  
turbolift.  
  
We took one of the smaller shuttlecrafts. They were not very roomy, but  
had more maneuverability, and the controls responded aptly enough, unlike  
some of the larger shuttles, which were a tad sluggish.  
  
As we headed towards the coordinates, we began our scans: wide-beam scans,  
narrow-beam scans, techion scans, scans for traces of tetrion particles,  
and so on. Everything seemed to be coming out negative. It appeared more  
and more that this part of space was just what it seemed: normal, with no  
sign of a Federation Starbase or other vessel.  
The comm station beeped and then Keels voice came through it:  
"Keel to Shuttlecraft One."  
"Go ahead, Captain," I said, continuing the scans.  
"Anything out there, Jean-Luc?"  
"Nothing so far, sir. We are continuing scans on all bands. We are also  
analyzing the data, which all seems to be, normal."  
I could hear his sigh.  
"Carry on. Let me know if you find anything. Keel out. "  
"Understood sir."  
  
I was busy at the control pad, not looking out of the shuttle. It was all  
black space anyway. Just then I heard something like a rustle of leaves,  
and turned my head to face Sainor. He was looking at me intently, eyes  
glittering, as if he wanted to communicate something to me. I opened my  
mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a proximity alarm sounding  
in the shuttlecraft.  
  
**Warning, object at ten meters. Collision imminent. Warning!!**  
  
I looked ahead. There, in front of us, almost completely covering the  
viewscreen, and growing larger every second, was a living, throbbing  
Starbase. Starbase 117. It looked as if it was manned. At least the warp  
core was functioning, since all stations systems appeared to be running,  
and it was registering on the scanners. On all scanners at once, in fact.  
  
There were several different alarms sounding in the shuttlecraft. I shut  
off the sensors, and took the helm. We were perilously close to the wall  
of the Starbase, and would strike it if our course was not altered.  
  
**Warning, object at six meters. Collision imminent. Warning!!**  
  
I tapped the controls, and swerved hard right. We swung about, clinging to  
our seats. The white wall ahead of us swung away, only to be replaced by  
the extension limb of a docking clamp. Again I tapped the controls and  
entered a new vector. It was fortunate that the little shuttlecraft was  
easy to control. As we thrust upwards, we were pushed back into our seats,  
and saw the extension limb disappear underneath our shuttlecraft.  
  
We had traversed almost the entire height of the Starbase when the comm  
beeped once again. It was Keel.  
"I see you found our missing Starbase, Jean-Luc." There was a hint of  
humor in his voice.  
"It just appeared, out of nowhere," I replied.  
"We have tried hailing them. There is no response. Shields are down.  
Life support is functioning. Hastings is preparing to beam over there with  
a security detail. I want you to dock and find out what the hell is going  
on with that station."  
"Aye sir"  
  
We docked successfully. It was good to know that at least the Starbase's  
computer was functioning at peak efficiency.  
  
The Starbase personnel, however, were another story. I don't think that  
anything could have prepared us for what we saw on board that Starbase.  
Even now I have visions in my nightmares of it.  
  
We had just disembarked from our shuttlecraft, and entered the hallway.  
Lights were dim, flickering. The only sound was the low hum of the warp  
core, which was the power signature. Everything else was silent. We could  
even hear our own breathing. We drew our phasors and tri-corders, and  
proceeded in.  
  
We walked along the curving corridor for a few minutes without seeing or  
hearing anyone. That was strange in itself. Our footfalls, light on the  
carpet, seemed to echo in the silence. The low hum of the warp core was a  
constant companion, and started to irritate me after a while. Perhaps  
because of the absence of any other sounds.  
  
Eventually we reached a doorway that led to the main deck. As I was  
preparing to open it, I felt Sainor's hand on my shoulder from behind.  
"Be wary, Picard," he said quietly. I nodded, and forced the door open.  
Lights in the chamber were not functioning, and it was pitch black inside.  
I stepped inside, followed by Sainor. As I did so, I seemed to step onto  
something wet, or liquid. I lifted my foot, looking down at my shoes.  
Sainor activated his portable flashlight, sending a bright wide beam onto  
the main deck. I was able to see what I had stepped in. It was red blood.  
  
I heard Sainor gasp, and looked up. What I saw astonished and horrified  
me. I felt my skin crawl and a chill went up my spine as I looked upon  
what only seemed like the aftermath of a massacre. The main deck was  
littered with corpses. Human corpses. They were wearing Starfleet  
uniforms, and must have been the station personnel. They were at their  
stations, lying on the floor, thrown across control panels and flung over  
railings, even pinned to the walls.  
  
"All dead," said Sainor slowly, pocketing his tri-corder. We looked around  
us as Sainor moved the light from one end of the deck to the other.  
  
"How did these people die?" I wondered aloud, more to myself than to  
Sainor. We were both struck with awe and disgust, for many of the bodies  
had been mutilated.  
  
Some of them were seated in their chairs with their skin peeled from their  
bodies, looking up in desperate silent screams. Others were lying on the  
floor with their limbs literally severed from their bodies. One man had  
been pierced through the chest with some sort of spear, and he was pinned  
to the wall high above our heads, blood still dripping from his fatal  
wound.  
  
After a few seconds I gathered the resolve to wander down the three steps  
onto the main floor of the deck, picking my way among the hacked bodies and  
pools of human blood, and made it to the station commander's chair. He was  
lying in it, limp and lifeless. I walked up to him, with Sainor beside me,  
and stood shocked.  
  
His head was thrown back, his face contorted horribly, fingers clawing at  
the leather of the seat. But what was most horrific was that his body  
seemed to be punctured by several holes, caused by perhaps a blunt spear or  
other primitive weapon. He had been brutally attacked, and it appeared  
that his assailant had not stopped stabbing him, even after death. The  
white bone of his shoulder blade was visible, his rib-cage was cracked and  
broken, with several ribs thrusting out in what only must have been an  
excruciatingly painful ordeal for him.  
  
I grimaced and turned quickly away.  
"What happened here?" Sainor whispered urgently.  
"I don't know, Mr. Sainor, but whatever happened, we have to determine what  
it was, and that it does not happen again." Our voices echoed eerily in  
the stillness of the room.  
  
Our comm badges beeped and a familiar voice came:  
"Hastings to Picard," It was Eddy Hastings, Security Chief of the  
Stargazer. He was aboard the Starbase now, with his security detail.  
"Go ahead Eddy," I replied.  
"I assume you have seen the dead," his voice seemed distant, far, while we  
stood in this dark place of death.  
"Yes, we are on the main deck. The station commander is among the dead.  
Have you located Admiral Luberto?"  
"Aye sir. He's dead, Jean-Luc."  
"We will try to access the computer logs from here. Conduct a station-wide  
search for any survivors."  
  
We informed Keel of our findings, and then I tried to access the main  
computer. It needed some cajoling, but finally gave me access. There were  
power fluctuations, however, and it was difficult to gain any reliable  
information from the workstation. I did obtain some data concerning  
station operations, though, and was able to remotely transfer the crew  
roster to Hastings. His team used it to identify the dead.  
  
Hastings' security team reported in as they searched each deck. So far  
all they had found was more dead bodies. Sainor and I left the main deck  
as soon as I was able to secure an upload frequency from the main  
computer. While I was working with the computer Sainor had restored the  
deck lighting, causing the room to be flooded in bright white light, which  
stung the eyes at first.  
  
I blinked up at him as he walked towards me.  
"Tired of the dark, Mr. Sainor?" I remarked. He looked around at the  
blood-splattered walls, and then said:  
"Not just the dark."  
  
His voice was solemn, mourning. I turned to finish up at the workstation  
with a renewed sense of urgency.  
  
***  
  
After our work was finished on the main deck, we headed towards  
Engineering, and then Astrometrics. Every place we went to was littered  
with dead bodies, murdered in the most horrible and grotesque ways. The  
experience of seeing the dead began to take on a surrealistic impression to  
me. I began to feel like the living among the dead. The place of the  
dead. Hades. My mind was wandering. I would be lost, in thought,  
pondering, when Sainor's quiet, strong voice would bring me back gently.  
He knew what was happening with me. He felt it too. He was determined to  
keep us both from falling into that black pit of hell called madness.  
Though I teetered upon the brink more than once, and more often the longer  
we spent on that Starbase, Sainor remained steadfast.  
  
Astrometrics was, as we had predicted, the same as the other rooms. But  
when we came to science laboratory, we heard noises. We had out phasors  
out in an instant, set to wide beams and maximum stun setting. We were not  
about to take any chances, for whatever had killed these people might still  
be aboard the station, and after seeing what it had done to other humans, I  
was not inclined to have desire to discuss anything with it. But we did  
not want to make any mistakes either, and so maximum stun it was.  
  
We swept the laboratory once, and then twice. We could not see anybody.  
The sounds were a low thud followed by a quick scratching. Sainor scanned  
the room with his tri-corder. He pointed towards an ante-chamber.  
"One life sign," he whispered, "human."  
Human. Could a human have done all this? And even if a human was capable  
of this carnage, how would it be possible for one human to murder hundreds?  
  
We advanced into the ante-chamber. It was considerably smaller than the  
rest of the lab. There were some storage cabinets here. It was from one  
of them that the sounds were emanating from. I stood before it, while  
Sainor took position behind me with phasor aimed and ready.  
  
With one swift movement I swung the door open. Inside crouched a man in a  
white lab overcoat, with his arms over his head, shaking visibly.  
"Please!" he groaned, "please don't kill me!"  
  
I looked from him to Sainor, who had put away his phasor.  
  
"Who are you?" I demanded.  
"Please don't kill me!" he wailed, "please! I beg you!"  
I squatted down in front of him and said quietly.  
"I am Commander Jean-Luc Picard, of the Federation Starship Stargazer. We  
were scheduled to dock here for data exchange and mission briefing. Can  
you tell us what happened here?"  
  
He looked up now. He was an old man, with white hair, and lines on his old  
leathery face. He did not seem to bear any marks or wounds. But his eyes  
were wild with fear, bloodshot. He was a man terrorized. He abruptly  
looked from me to Sainor, who stood with arms folded, observing.  
"You came, please, help me. You must get me out. Of here. It went wrong,  
all wrong! They might be back, we might go back. I must . . . I have to  
get out! You must help me! You will help me won't you!?"  
"Try and calm down, we will take you with us and our doctor can have a look  
at you."  
"Doctor yes! Yes, I need some sedatives I imagine. Something, oh my God!  
You must get me out of here! We must leave this starbase! We must leave  
immediately! Or we might all die!"  
  
He began to babble incoherently. I stood up and faced Sainor.  
"Lets take him back to the Stargazer," -- and then on my comm badge to Eddy  
-- "Eddy, as soon as you have finished your sweep report back to the  
Stargazer."  
"Aye Sir!"  
  
From the tone of his voice it appeared that Eddy Hastings did not desire to  
stay on board any longer than he needed to.  
  
***  
  
The man we had found on board the Starbase was named William Magnus.  
Indeed he was no other than the famed Dr. William Magnus, one of the  
greatest Federation scientists. We left Dr. Magnus in Sick Bay until he  
had recovered somewhat. When he had calmed down, and was able to speak,  
Keel called the senior staff for a meeting in the conference room.  
"I was conducting an experiment on Starbase 117," Dr. Magnus was talking in  
a very different tone now, quiet, serene, calm, one might almost say  
humbled, "It was in warp-field metrics. It has been a simple fact-finding  
and data-gathering discipline. But no-one really looks at the data, I mean  
really analyzes it. There are secrets there, and I could see them, from  
very early on. But I did not have the necessary equipment to work on my  
hypotheses."  
"Exactly what were these hyptheses that you had, doctor?" I asked.  
"I postulated many years ago, that warp drive was only a by-product of the  
real output of a warp-field. The warp core generates enough energy to  
propel a starship forward in time and space at such and such a ratio, and  
so on and so forth. But what noone realized, or cared about, was that a  
warp-field has other effects too, such as a massive energy dissipation, an  
actual change in the Rohaan thermal coefficient. Have you ever heard of  
that? When you couple that with the massive amounts of neutron emissions  
from our standard warp-drive engine, that points to a startling fact."  
  
Khalid, who had been sitting quietly until now, suddenly leaned forward in  
his seat and looked at Magnus with an alarmed expression on his face. He  
had a pad sitting on the table in front of him. It was blinking with  
freshly entered data and solved equations.  
"You don't mean to say you created a Quantum Singularity?" he asked  
Magnus. The doctor looked at Khalid and shook his head.  
"A Quantum Singularity, no. There are ways, even for that, but not with  
the by-products, as most would call them, of our warp engines. No sir,  
what I created was far more powerful than a quantum singularity. Not just  
a simple rift in time and space, something more and beyond that. I had  
expected, that when the Rohaan coefficient was around 0.5, we would see an  
effect similar to a natural wormhole. But I was wrong."  
He sighed, and shook his head. "The fluctuation was too great, and too  
erratic. It shifted so suddenly that it was hard to compensate for phase  
variances. We could not keep up, we had a sudden drop to 0.04, and thats  
when everything started going wrong."  
  
He looked up at us, and he seemed to have aged a hundred years. Those old  
grey eyes, that haggard face. Three hundred and seventy lives is not an  
easy burden to carry on your mind.  
"We did move out of time and space. But we didn't travel through a  
wormhole. It was nothing like I had ever seen. It could only be described  
as an interspatial vortex. Originating from my little experiment in the  
Science Lab. We were pulled through this phenomenon into another  
dimension, a place very different from this Universe where we live. The  
only thing I can say about that place is that humans were not meant to be  
there. One could not live there. We were only there for a few minutes,  
and it seemed like hours, days. We all went mad. I could not tell what  
was happening. You see, Captain, there are things in that place, things  
that drive a man insane. How I found that dimension, I do not know. And I  
hope I never find it again."  
  
Keel's face was devoid of emotion."I do have one question, doctor," he  
asked."If everyone else aboard the Starbase went mad, how did you keep from  
following that route, or getting killed."  
Now Magnus sighed, his shoulders sagged down, and the color left his face.  
"You see, they came. And they walked among us as if they were real. Well,  
in that place I suppose they were real."  
"Doctor, who are 'they'?" Keel asked.  
Magnus sighed deeply. And then he wailed out: "The dead! The dying!  
Demons, devils, evil spirits. Call them what you want. They live in that  
place, they reside there. Going there only put us as risk. Gave them a  
chance to do what they love to do. No, we were not meant to be there."  
Magnus appeared to be losing control again, but he took a deep breath, and  
recovered his trembling self.  
"How I managed to survive, Captain," he continued "is by hiding. Yes sir,  
I hid like a coward. There are some places which are impervious to their  
senses, such as a within a titanium-lead alloy. Those storage cabinets I  
hid in were made of a titanium-lead alloy. they did not sense me there.  
All the while I heard the screams of the people all around me, such hideous  
screams. I am afraid that I cannot continue, Captain. I need a respite."  
  
We had Dr. Magnus returned to sick bay, where he was kept under sedation.  
Meanwhile we turned our attention to other matters. Khalid had re-routed  
Engineering control to a workstation on the bridge and began work on  
obtaining the Starbase logs.  
"Uplink frequency verified, upload initiated," he reported, as he began an  
upload of the Stations computer logs.  
  
Seconds later, the upload had been completed.  
"Commander, we have several missing fragments. Some of them are large data  
clusters. That was probably why you had trouble accessing the data from  
the station."  
  
I looked at the terminal displaying the tattered file system and computer  
logs.  
"Can you recover it?" I asked doubtfully.  
  
"Recovery is only partial. I will be able to patch it so we can recover  
the existing logs. Hopefully Dr. Magnus' experiment data is is still  
intact."  
  
I nodded. Keel came up beside me.  
"Jean Luc," he said in a low voice, "I have sent a report to Starfleet  
command. They are not pleased about this development. Admiral Murray has  
given me a few options -- one of them is to destroy the starbase."  
"With all the people still on board, sir?" I asked "Those people deserve a  
decent burial."  
Keel shook his head. "I couldn't agree with you more, Jean-Luc. But you  
saw them yourself. Are they in any condition to be buried?"  
I shuddered as I recalled how one mans body was scattered over an entire  
deck in pieces.  
"I have the data concerning Dr. Magnus' experiment," said Khalid, bringing  
up some documentation and schematics on the workstation viewpad. Keel and  
I studied the views.  
  
"It looks like a circuit to modify the flow rate to the warp drive," Keel  
commented. Khalid nodded and scrolled to new views.  
"Here, look," he pointed, as he scrolled, "and here. And here. Dr. Magnus  
made use of several automation algorithms to move his general and specific  
tasks into modules, and then automate the processing. He used a lot of  
variant data. There are gigabytes of just experiment parameters. He  
really did not leave any stone unturned."  
"I'd say he turned one stone too many," said Keel.  
  
We left Khalid to continue his work on the Station logs; I was off duty for  
the next three hours, and decided to take some time and soak in a tub of  
soaking hot water. I felt the need to wash myself clean of something dirty  
that I had been exposed to.  
  
An hour and a lot of scrubbing later, I sat in the little tub with bubbles  
floating all around me, steam rising from the hot soapy water, and felt  
genuinely better. All I needed now was a cup of hot Earl Grey tea. I  
reached for the towel . . .  
  
. . . just as I walked toward the replicator, general alarm Red Alert!  
sounded. The Captain's voice came loud over the comm system: "Red Alert!  
All hands to battlestations!"  
  
I had my uniform on in seconds and was out the door, into the hallway where  
people were running in every direction, hurrying to their posts. I made it  
to the bridge as soon as I could. It was flooded in red light. Keel stood  
facing the viewscreen, while Khalid appeared to be working frantically at  
the Engineering workstation.  
  
Keel turned to offer me a brief glance as I walked onto the bridge.  
"Dr. Magnus's experiment, Jean-Luc," he explained, as we both looked at the  
floating white Starbase on the viewscreen. "It has somehow restarted.  
Only it began on the Stargazer. Something triggered it, temperature,  
atomic time, who knows, it might just have been enough disk arrays to store  
resultant data."  
"How could it just start up again, without any setup data?" I asked.  
Khalid answered me. "Magnus used several modules of automated sequences.  
It made for easier execution. There must have been a protocol subroutine  
left unlocked. When it sensed a functioning warp-drive, it must have  
started it's sequencing. Power started to be re-routed from Engineering.  
We noticed an energy buildup on the Starbase, and then realized that a  
remote data transfer was occurring. In a sense, the computer is running  
the experiment from here, remotely."  
I looked out at the Starbase. It seemed to vibrate. Somewhere in there,  
Magnus's terrible experiment was coming to life again.  
  
"Computer, locate Dr. Magnus," I said.  
Doctor Magnus is in Sick Bay  
"Doctor, we require your assistance on the Bridge, if you would be so good  
as to join us."  
"I'm on my way" Already his voice was shaking.  
  
I turned to Keel. "If we are not able to shut down this experiment, we  
need protection in the event that we find ourselves in the place that he  
spoke of."  
"The place of the dead? That may just have been a fabrication, Jean-Luc."  
"Quite so. But I would rather not take the chances. We have the  
capability of replicating pressure vessels of titanium-lead. It may be  
necessary to use them."  
Keel nodded. "See to it."  
  
I ordered Hastings to use the main transporter room to replicate enough of  
the titanium-lead "pressure" vessels so that every crew member would be  
able to use one. Using the main transporters would give us a faster  
replication rate than the usual method of replicating one at a time.  
"Such a thing has never existed before," said Hastings, "I will need some  
sort of blueprints."  
Khalid wheeled around in his chair and handed Hastings a pad: "Your  
blueprints."  
  
Hastings nodded, and was away in an instant.  
  
Suddenly the ship shuddered, and our viewscreen was illuminated with the  
faint green light of a tractor beam.  
  
I turned to T'Pau. The Vulcan Tactical Officer was looking grim indeed,  
even for a Vulcan.  
"We have locked a tractor beam onto the Starbase," she announced.  
"Did we do that?" I asked.  
"No. Shipwide controls have been re-routed to engineering. It appears  
that a certain program caused the automatic tractor lock-on. Tracing  
memory address . . . it is the currently executing simulation of Dr.  
Magnus's experiment."  
"We need to shut that experiment down, somehow," said Keel.  
  
The turbolift doors opened and Magnus ran onto the bridge.  
"It has started?" he cried, "again?"  
"Doctor, how do we shut it down?" Keel demanded. Magnus appeared fazed,  
confused. He looked at the floor, shaking his head.  
"I don't remember. I don't . . . "  
"Doctor, you must remember how you shut it down."  
"I did not do anything with the main controls. I was hiding in the storage  
cabinet. I only had a pad with me. I was monitoring the fluctuation of  
the Rohaan coefficient. It changed. I could only make cursory changes  
from my pad. The main experiment was running as it was programmed to. You  
see, everything is automated--"  
  
He stopped, mouth open, when he looked up at the viewscreen and saw what  
was happening. As we watched, the starbase shimmered, and then seemed to  
fade away. But it did not. It returned to it's previous state, humming  
and throbbing with a powerful warp drive. Only the space surrounding it  
was different. A howl went up from Magnus, as he threw his arms up into  
the air and fell face forward onto the ground. I felt strange sensations  
crawl unde rmy skin. I looked out at the dark space, and it was bright --  
there were many many more starts than usual, they seemed to be bursting  
with light. And long trails of glittering light streaked across the  
otherwise black matte of Space. This place, whatever it was, seemed very  
much alive.  
"Helm, location," said Keel.  
"Navigation does not register any known planets or systems, sir. We are in  
uncharted Space."  
"But we are in Space, at least," remarked Keel. "Scan for any M-class  
planets."  
Keel made a move to return to his chair. But something was very wrong. It  
seemed, as I was looking at it, that time seemed to slow down. Everything  
happened in slow motion. Keel was taking a step towards his Captain's  
chair. Magnus had looked up from his crouching position on the floor, and  
now he screamed.  
"They are here!" he yelled. "We are doomed!"  
  
I saw shapes materializing behind Keel. I had my phasor handy, and set to  
kill. I aimed and fired. The phasor beam went right through the shape and  
discharged into the bridge wall. I fired again with the same effect. The  
odd images began to move, heading swiftly for the nearest crew member. I  
grabbed Keel's arm and swung him about. He had his phasor out and fired at  
the shape approaching him, with the same results as I had had. The shape,  
which was not fully solidified yet, was coming straight at Keel. It seemed  
to be some sort of animal or humanoid creature, with two legs, two or maybe  
three arms, and a very grotesquely shaped head. But more than that we  
could not make out. Something was preventing it from fully materializing.  
At least for now.  
  
It latched onto Keel. He stood completely motionless while it hovered  
behind him, seeming to envelope him.  
"Hastings," I called on my communicator. "Are those pressure vessels  
ready?"  
"We havent had enough time to replicate more than a few sir! Most of my  
men have been taken already."  
Hastings' voice was raspy, and there was phasor fire and screaming in the  
background. I slammed down into my chair and initialized the routine for  
the emergency transporter. Busy, with my head down, I did not notice one  
of the alien beings begin to approach me. Meanwhile Keel had stopped being  
motionless and began to be dangerously violent. He was slamming his head  
against the helm controls, blood was already flowing from his forehead, and  
he seemed to getting more violent.  
  
  
My mind was confused. It was a jumble, everything was a moving too  
quickly, too fast, for anything to register. But just then, as I completed  
entering the command sequence for the emergency transporter, my mind  
quieted and I heard a low voice. It was Sainor. Jean-Luc, he said.  
Instantly I looked up. The alien being was almost upon me, claws  
outstretched, moving in for the kill, leaping, almost floating on the air.  
I slammed my fist down on the controls, and the image before me vanished.  
  
Instead I found myself on one of three transporter pads, in a  
blood-spattered transporter room. Men were lying on the floor, writhing in  
agony, or dead. The walls was awash in red blood. Hastings was at the  
transporter controls, he was choking, with one of the aliens latched behind  
him. I remember tears streaming down my face -- the Stargazer was becoming  
what the Starbase had become. Beside me stood two of the pressure suits,  
looking oddly like some strange ancient armor, recreated in titanium-lead  
alloy for a bodysuit in which one could walk. Quickly I got into the one  
closest to me, just as another alien being materialized in the room.  
  
It was warm inside the suit. I had some room, although moving was  
difficult. I could only accomplish slow and awkward movements. But it  
worked for what it was designed. As I looked out the little visor, I could  
distinctly see the alien being standing in the center of the room, making  
no move, just standing there in that strange pattern. It did not see me.  
I sighed.  
  
Slowly, very slowly, I began to move towards the door. I glanced towards  
Hastings -- he was out of air, and would have crumpled to the ground had  
not the alien been holding him up. I closed my eyes and walked out into  
the hallway. They were everywhere, and new ones materializing every  
instant. Some of them had weapons -- crude looking primitive weapons.  
They looked like spears. I remembered the station commander aboard  
Starbase 117. How he had been stabbed so many times. The ones holding the  
weapons seemed different from the others -- they were shorter, uglier,  
moved more clumsily, and were louder in their scraping and grunting.  
  
I had not gotten far from the transporter room when I encountered an  
unusually large beast blocking my way. This one was unlike the others,  
large, towering, and apparenlty superior in some way to the others. For it  
seemed to be grunting orders at the others. I stood quietly waiting for it  
to move. It did not. Instead it looked at me curiously. It screeched.  
It could see me!  
  
I was about to turn around, but then I felt a painful jab in my head, and  
could hear it's thoughts. Vicious, malevolent, hateful thoughts.  
Why have you come here? it demanded.  
We do not want to intrude upon your Space I replied.  
Why are you here?  
By accident. We want to go back to where we came from.  
You will not go back! You will die here!  
Who are you? Where is this place?  
This place is our place. We rule here. Your death gives us life. We have  
no desire to make an alliance with you. We have no desire to return you to  
your place. You have come here and disturbed us.  
How is it that you can sense me while the others cannot?  
Laughter. High and wild. Like a shreik. They are low. I have powers  
which they cannot comprehend. And neither can you. You cannot see us in  
our true form because of a phase variance which does not allow us to fully  
be here.  
Yes, our shields.  
We will deactivate them soon. And then this vessel will become ours.  
Do you live in structured societies? Are you a civilization?  
No. We only kill. And you are here not to explore, only to die.  
  
I had thought that it would kill me. But it only turned around and walked  
away. I made some quick mental calculations. It was heading towards  
Engineering -- to shut down the shield generators.  
  
I made my way back to the bridge painfully slowly. When I arrived there  
Sainor was bent over the engineering workstation, fingers flying over the  
console, while Khalid and the others lay in a tangled heap in front of the  
captain's chair. I could not tell if they were alive or not. Sainor did  
not seem to have any of the aliens attached to him.  
"Sainor!" I cried. He looked up, but only briefly.  
"We have only a few minutes before they disable the shield generators,  
Commander," he said. "Unless we return to normal space before they do, we  
will be stuck here forever."  
  
I hobbled towards him.  
"How can we do that?" I asked him.  
"The experiment. I am sending it matrix sets with null data. With nothing  
to vary, it should return to control defaults, which is what normally  
occurs when a regular wap drive is operating. Dr. Magnus mentioned that  
the Starbase returned to normal space after the Rohaan coefficient returned  
to a default value. I am hoping the same will be true of this starship."  
  
I moved to the tactical station.  
"Disengaging tractor beam," I cut off the tractor beam, and armed the  
photon torpedoes. Sainor was still inputting the new data sets. Shapes  
began to materialize on the bridge.  
"They are coming!" I called over to Sainor. He nodded and continued  
working silently.  
  
They began to approach us. An alarm went off. The main computer was still  
online:  
  
**Warning!! Sheild Generator overload!! Warning!!**  
  
It was like shifting out of phase. The slow moving creatures fully  
materialized on the bridge, complete with their green skin and the bloodied  
spears that they held in their claws. They were long-limbed creatures,  
with claws and a thick leathery outer skin. One eyes in the center of  
their forehead, and long teeth that resembled fangs. Strange sounds  
emanated from them, sometimes shreiks, sometimes low muffled coughs.  
  
One of them had reached Sainor. It was hovering over him, preparing to  
attach itself to him. But even as it did so, he turned, and made a gesture  
with his hand. A posture he stood in. A low chant that he hummed -- it  
echoed in my mind. The creature shrieked and was thrown back by an  
invisible force. It flew across the bridge and slammed against the wall on  
the other side, and then crumpled into a heap on the floor. Sainor  
returned to entering the data sets. In the next second, he had completed  
entering them.  
  
"Now!" he said, re-initiating the experiment routines.  
"Torpedoes away!" I fired a full spread of photon torpedoes. We watched  
as the bright red flares flew towards the Starbase on the viewscreen. Only  
meters away from us the creatures were closing in. We stood silently as  
the torpedoes reached their target and detonated. The Starbase began to  
explode brilliantly. As it did, we saw it shimmer and fade, and suddenly  
the creatures had disappeared. The space looked dimmer, with fewer stars  
and less brightly shining, and no brilliant streaks across space.  
  
I tumbled out of my suit and ran towards the helm control.  
"We are in Federation Space," I said with a sigh.  
  
***  
  
We did have casualties. Thirty-five in all. And many more were wounded.  
But Khalid, Keel, and Hastings were alive. We were able to get them the  
medical attention they required. Sainor and I piloted the Stargazer to a  
medical facility where the crew was taken care of.  
  
Later, after we had filed our reports, and Starfleet had conducted it's  
investigation of the whole affair, I sat in the Mess Hall looking out at  
the stars flying past as we travelled at high warp back to Mars for shore  
leave.  
"May I, join you?" It was Sainor. I looked up and nodded.  
"That was a close one, Do-reth," I said.  
"Aye Commander, it was."  
"Tell me, how were you able to stay so long without falling foul of one of  
those beings?"  
"I was fortunate in that I could anticipate their movements."  
"Mr. Sainor, you never cease to amaze me."  
He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement.  
"Did you know what those beings were, and why they wanted to kill us?" I  
asked.  
"Perhaps, Jean-Luc, it is as Magnus said. There are realms, where we are  
not meant to tread. The Universe is here. And it is vast. Perhaps we  
should just content ourselves with the exploration at hand."  
  
  
T h e E n d  
(c) Jasjit Singh, 1998  
  



End file.
